As a jury of eight women and four men walked into Saginaw County Circuit Judge James T. Borchard’s courtroom early this afternoon, family members of February homicide victim Dawn Ricklefs and suspects Steven J. Rembish and Roberto L. Rodea silently awaited the jury’s verdict.

Within moments, individuals on both sides of the courtroom were quietly crying — justice for a mother’s and sister’s death with first-degree murder convictions, two relatively young men and their families learning they will go to prison for the rest of their lives.

“I was nervous,” said Ricklefs’ daughter, Tara Ricklefs. “You always see how other cases go, and some of them turn out bad.”

While Ricklefs wept with her family as the jury foreman announced the verdict, she bore a smile in a hallway afterward.

“I’m glad they’re not going to be able to hurt anybody else,” she said. “I can’t wait for them to pay for what they did to my mom.”

Both Rembish, 36, and Rodea, 25, were convicted of first-degree premeditated murder, conspiring to commit that crime, and 10 other firearm-related felonies in the 54-year-old Ricklefs’ early Feb. 19 death at the Corner Lounge bar, 2100 W. Michigan at Superior on Saginaw’s southwest side. The murder convictions carry mandatory sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Rembish, who also was convicted of first-degree murder last month in the Dec. 2, 2010, homicide of Sean Stennett, had no reaction as the verdict was read and did not look back to his family as he walked out of the courtroom. Rodea looked back at his family multiple times as the verdict was read and the family members, including his wife, cried. Rodea mouthed the words, “I love you” to his wife as the verdict was read and said, “I’ll be all right” as he walked out of the courtroom.

County Assistant Prosecutor Paul Fehrman said during his closing argument that the “only reason” the shooting happened, Fehrman said, was that Rodea was “pissed off” about losing cocaine during a brawl at the bar that also involved Rembish and their friends, father and son David C. Neitzelt and Joshua D. Kollman.

About 30 minutes after the fight and Rodea’s threats, somebody fired a 9mm handgun at the bar. Ricklefs, who was not involved in the fight and was one of about 12 patrons left in the bar, was sitting directly in front of the bar’s east door and was shot twice, including once in the heart.

Rodea also testified that after the foursome left the bar and before the shooting, he “passed out” at Rembish’s house from being too drunk. Phone records showed Rodea made numerous calls with his cellphone in the southwest Saginaw area as late as 3 a.m.

Rembish did not testify.

While Rembish and Rodea didn’t necessarily intend to kill Ricklefs when they came back, Fehrman said, the “transferred intent” theory meant that the men’s intent to kill — anybody, not just Ricklefs — was enough to convict them of first-degree murder.

That also was the case in the Stennett murder that Rembish and Jonathon L. Jones were convicted of last month. Stennett’s mother, Joan Stennett, decided to attend parts of the trial and sat next to Tara Ricklefs as the verdict was read.

“I’m glad, not that it’s going to bring either of them back,” said Stennett, who began crying before even speaking a word to reporters. “I thought it would be easier, but it’s not.”

If it weren’t for detectives connecting Rembish to the Ricklefs homicide, they may not have connected him to Stennett’s death, she said.

“I’m so thankful they found them, but it’s too bad” it took another person dying to do so, she said.

Borchard is scheduled to sentence Rembish and Jones on Jan. 19 and Rembish and Rodea on Feb. 16.

After that, Stennett said, “I’m not ever going to have to look at them again.”